1. Field of the Invention
The invention is related to the field of communications and, in particular, to bandwidth usage in mobile networks.
2. Statement of the Problem
Mobile networks, such as CDMA networks or GSM networks, are used for communication through a variety of media types. For example, the mobile networks are commonly used for voice calls, email, text messaging, multimedia messaging, Instant Messaging (IM), etc. To allow for effective communications, service providers design and implement the mobile networks to have a high enough bandwidth capacity. The service providers would optimally like to utilize a significant portion of the bandwidth of the mobile network without overloading the mobile network. An optimal utilization of the bandwidth of the mobile network results in the service providers obtaining high revenues without undue congestion or Quality of Service (QoS) issues.
One problem encountered by service providers is that certain regions of a mobile network may encounter periods of inactivity where the bandwidth usage is below some desired threshold. For example, one or more regions may have reduced bandwidth usage during late evenings, on Thursday mornings, on the last five days before a billing period, etc. These periods of inactivity represent lost revenue to the service providers.
Another problem is overloading regions of a mobile network. For example, if there is a big event in a town (e.g., a Presidential inauguration), then this region of the mobile network may be overloaded with voice calls, picture messages, text messages, etc. When regions of the mobile network become overloaded, the switches or other network elements handling these regions may shut down causing a temporary loss of communications.
It may be desirable to control bandwidth utilization of a mobile network by influencing how the end users of the mobile network initiate communications.